On a Charged Aerosol Wind/Electric Power Generator, electrically charged water droplets are dispersed into the wind stream. Using Induction Electric Charging, a water jet issues under water pressure from a small diameter (25-50 .mu.m) orifice, and the jet breaks into charged droplets. A plate orifice 35 .mu.m diameter, and 25 .mu.m long appears optimum, a single jet from such an orifice at a water pressure of 15 psig produces net electric power output substantially exceeding the hydarulic and electric power inputs. A practical Wind/Electric Generator utilizes a multi-orifice array scaled to a kilowatt or megawatt level. A water recovery and pressure regeneration solar and/or gravitational means is described by which water is conserved and the water power is free, so that there is a net output electric power without external power input of any kind, except natural wind and/or solar power.
This invention is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,396, issued June 3, 1980, entitled "Charged Aerosol Generator with Uni-Electrode Source". The Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DEAC02-78 ER04985 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The state of the art is given in a previous report.sup.1. In this report, Method 4.1 was employed to produce the charged aerosol.sup.2. In this method, water under pressure is forced through a micro-orifice to form a charged aerosol in the presence of an electric field and dispersed in the wind. In most cases, the water power utilized is a small proportion of the electric power output.
The present invention relates to a method of obtaining the water pressure utilizing solar power. A further advantage of this invention is that the water supply is heated even in the winter so that ice will not form as long as the system is in operation.
Further, utilizing a modification of this system, Method 3 may be employed to form a charged aerosol by condensation, again utilizing micro-orifices to limit the steam flow. An advantage of the Condensation Method is that a smaller amount of water is employed because the charged droplets produced are very much smaller in diameter.sup.2 for the same electric charges.